Friends and family are struggling over the death of a Lee’s Summit mother, killed in a car accident on the way to her bachelorette party Friday, when the vehicle she was in riding struck another head-on.

on.aol.com

A bride never made it to her bachelorette party due to a car crash that killed her this week. A 26-year-old woman from Lee Summit was a passenger in a car that was in the middle of trying to pass another vehicle when her driver misgauged the distance and slammed into incoming traffic. WKTR News provides the details in this tragic death this Wednesday, June 25, and what turned a day that should have been full of fun and laughter into one of sadness and tears.

Wikimedia Creative Commons, Flickr

The bride-to-be has been identified this week as Collette M. Moreno, who was traveling to the Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate the special occasion. The deadly bachelorette party car crash also resulted in the driver, a close female friend of Moreno, being injured. Police officers on the scene have confirmed that the unfortunate bride-to-be was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the fatal accident; she passed away shortly after being admitted to the local University Hospital of Columbia.

The name of the driver is Ashley M. Theobald, who is said to be “devastated” at the loss of her friend after the violent collision. According to the young woman, she and Collette were enjoying the ride together on the way to the latter’s bachelorette party. However, the women soon found themselves trapped behind a semi with heavy exhaust fumes. The smoke was so bad, said Theobald, that it was getting hard to see and even giving her a coughing fit. She also noted in her statement that she suffers from asthma and was having a brief attack due to being behind the large truck's exhaust trail.

As a result, Ashley tried to pass the semi. She said that the car crash occurred because she had been unable to clearly see the oncoming vehicle due to her physical reaction and a sharp hill, but by then she was already on the other side of the street and it was too late to avoid a collision. The young woman was crying uncontrollably on Monday while retelling the events that led up to the deadly car accident, frequently mentioning how much she loved her friend and how much she is going to miss the would-be bride suddenly taken from her.

Highway patrol teams and emergency crews were alerted of the car crash on the way to a bachelorette party shortly before 3 pm on Friday afternoon, adds the New York Daily News in an updated report, The collision itself was said to occur in Morgan County along Prairie Valley Road and Missouri Highway 5. As mentioned in the official Missouri Highway Patrol citation, the cause of the accident was a failed attempt to pass a vehicle in an opposite driving lane.

According to the police report, both cars managed to see each other only moments before impact. While the oncoming vehicle swerved to avoid a crash, Theobold did the same. Unfortunately, this created a negative chain effect of both drivers colliding, which resulted in the other car (a Dodge) broadsiding her Malibu. Both vehicles with their motorists inside were then said to have careened onto opposite sides of the road.

Ashley Theobald only suffered minor injuries that were taken care of at the same hospital her friend — bride-to-be Collete Moreno — died at. There was only one other individual in the other vehicle who was also confirmed to have been wearing a seat belt and not suffered any major injuries. Although Theobald is not expected to face any criminal charges, including vehicular manslaughter, she is said to still be in shock and pain over the incident.

The young woman’s death in the bachelorette car crash has also left her other friends, especially her family, in utter grief. Those who will likely miss her most are her five-year-old son, named Braden, as well as her longtime boyfriend turned fiancé, Jesse Arcobasso. Not even a week has passed since the weekend accident, and Arcobasso simply fell to pieces when he heard the news. One source said that he was unable to tell Braden how much he loved his mom and why she would never be coming home to him.

California officials said Tuesday that a teen boy has been arrested on suspicion of killing missing 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton in Santa Cruz, California, and hiding her body in an outdoor recycle bin. She was last seen Sunday in her apa...